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Did Xavier Becerra sue a Catholic charity over contraceptives?
WASHINGTON — Republicans trying to sink California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s nomination to join President Joe Biden’s Cabinet as health secretary are frequently citing California’s ongoing litigation involving the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic nonprofit run by nuns. The charge centers on a lawsuit Becerra filed against the administration of former President Donald Trump in 2017, hours after the Department of Health and Human Services announced a proposed rule to expand religious exemptions for employers that did not want to provide coverage for contraceptives through insurance...
The Sacramento Bee
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Mark Jackson still wants to coach but believes Golden State ‘narrative’ is holding him back
NEW YORK — Nearing seven years since he was fired by Golden State, Mark Jackson remains eager for coaching work and still unable to find an opportunity. The former Knick acknowledged that the “narrative” surrounding his stint with the Warriors is a factor in being blackballed, and Jackson specifically defended himself against the accusation that he forced Steph Curry to go to church to heal his balky ankle. “When you make a statement and say I force folks to come to church — are you kidding me? What sense does that make?” Jackson said on ‘The Boardroom: Out of Office Podcast” with host Rich Kl...
New York Daily News
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Martin Schram: Founding Fathers feel constitutionally conned
Yes, when they wrote their final document in a flourishing longhand, the Founding Fathers didn’t make it easy for future centuries’ students to speed-read their “Constitution for the United States of America.” And yes, the founders would think it’s a knee-slapping hoot that today we think their every S looks like an F. But if Tom Jefferson, James Madison and their fellow founders had somehow come back to 2021 to spend a few months in the new city they named for their president, they’d surely have been shocked, saddened — and maybe enraged — to have seen on Jan. 6 how we have messed up the demo...
Tribune News Service
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New protest policy would limit use of tear gas, force by Kansas City police
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City police officers will limit their use of less-lethal weapons such as tear gas, and other use-of-force tactics, to break up what they consider unruly protesters, according to a policy proposed by the Kansas City Police Department. The "First Amendment-Protected Activities" policy was discussed Tuesday during the monthly meeting of the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners. The proposed policy was presented to the board for review, and no immediate action was taken. The new policy was created in response to protests last summer at the Country Club Plaza. During ...
The Kansas City Star
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COVID-19 means this year, Ash Wednesday ashes will be sprinkled or applied with a cotton applicator
CHICAGO – Ash Wednesday will look a little different for Chicago area Catholics, with new COVID-19 precautions featuring the sprinkling of ashes on the top of the head, a practice that is common in Europe, officials at the Archdiocese of Chicago said in a Friday statement. Those receiving ashes on Feb. 17 may also have the option of having the ashes placed on their forehead with a non-plastic Q-Tip or cotton ball, officials said. In normal times, ashes are applied by hand to worshipers’ foreheads in the shape of a cross as an outward expression of their faith. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning...
Chicago Tribune
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Martin Schram: Impeachment, accomplices and a rigged jury
As the U.S. Senate pressed through its final days of the second impeachment trial of America’s 45th president, Donald Trump, it is important that we recognize one unfortunate distinction that didn’t exist in Trump’s first impeachment trial and acquittal. This time, in the impeachment trial where Trump is charged with “incitement of insurrection,” Trump’s jury is rigged. In Trump’s favor. A number of the Republican senators who are now Trump’s impeachment jurors performed for months as Trump’s de facto enablers and accomplices – even as he went all out to inflame his most hardcore voters and co...
Tribune News Service
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Marcus Hayes: Carson Wentz is poised to be Philadelphia's greatest sports villain if he leaves the Eagles
PHILADELPHIA — J.D. Drew and Scott Rolen will be saints in Philadelphia before Carson Wentz's sins are washed away. Wentz, the highest-paid Eagles player in franchise history, reportedly is forcing the Eagles to trade him — after he cashed the biggest checks, and after he played historically poorly, and after the franchise has accommodated almost every whim. Don't blame Howie Roseman. Don't blame Jeffrey Lurie. Don't blame Doug Pederson. Blame Wentz. The Eagles will spend their 2021 season in NFL purgatory because the most important and most expensive person in team history reneged on his word...
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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Martin Schram: Eyewitnesses for the prosecution
Somberly, one by one, officers in uniform came to the precise center of the historic white-domed Capitol Rotunda. Slowly, on Wednesday, each officer saluted the colleague who had fought to preserve democracy for us all. Symbolically, each officer held that salute for a freeze-framed moment, as absolute silence filled democracy’s hallowed hall where even time seems to echo. Watching those uniformed officers saluting Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, 42, whose ashes were lying in honor in a small mahogany box, beside a folded United States flag, I found my mind’s eye also seeing a striki...
Tribune News Service
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'I'm Jewish.' After video tirade, ex-Miami-Dade police employee swears she's not anti-Semitic
MIAMI — A retired Miami-Dade police homicide stenographer wearing her department jacket went viral Tuesday night when video emerged of her screaming profanities at a parked SUV outside a Boca Raton Chinese restaurant. "Just because you're Jewish and a Democrat doesn't give you the right to stay there," Leslie Socolov yells at the SUV blocking her car in a parking lot, as laughter erupts in the background. She also yells: "Move your f---ing car you stupid Jew!" The video was posted to Twitter by a website called StopAntiSemitism.org. The Miami-Dade Police Department, in a tweet on Tuesday night...
Miami Herald
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Martin Schram: How top House Republican threw GOP bus under Trump
This past week, who’da-thunk-it political history was made — by a most unlikely figure, in a most unacceptable way. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, never celebrated as a political muscleman, zig-zagged his way into an invitation to see the momentarily quiet Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate. He did it just so he could pull off a feat of political powerlifting that was both zany and Tarzany. In a switch on the talking heads’ default cliché, the House’s top Republican threw his entire Grand Old Party bus under Donald Trump. (Note to readers: Do not adjust your eyeballs. You read that r...
Tribune News Service
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